Scoop: Mariah’s Erratic Behavior Raising Eyebrows

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Director Lee Daniels presents Mariah Carey with the Breakthrough Actress Performance award onstage at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival. She has admitted that alcohol affected her behavior.

Mariah Carey’s erratic behavior bar is set high. Topping her 2001 declaration on “Total Request Live” that she would like “one day off when I can go swimming and look at rainbows and, like, eat ice cream” would be difficult. However, her recent behavior is raising eyebrows.

On Tuesday night, Carey accepted an award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Her speech was rambling at best, and involved finger snapping and spontaneous applause.

Carey conceded that she might have been a little drunk, but that doesn’t explain her behavior behind the scenes at some recent publicity appearances. One makeup artists who worked with Carey in recent weeks said, “She showed up in the morning to start getting ready and she wasn’t stable on her feet. She was rambling and not making much sense, but she didn’t seem drunk at all. She just seemed out of it.”

Another source with access to Carey’s dressing room at a different appearance said Carey was definitely uncomfortable around staff trying to help her. “People were just asking if she needed anything — nothing intrusive, just people doing their jobs — and and she either ignored them completely or seemed confused. But when the cameras were on, she was back to herself.”

In Harper’s Bazaar, Cyrus defends the VF shoot, where she appeared loosely wrapped in a bed sheet. “Here, my parents are thinking they’re seeing a beautiful photograph by a major photographer, and the people of America want to see something dirty in that? It doesn’t make sense to us because (my family) doesn’t look for negativity. But people don't want to say, ‘What a great performance’ or ‘What a great shot.’ No one wants to look at something like that and see the positive because it doesn't sell a magazine.”

Many critics of the shoot (done by Annie Leibovitz) said that Cyrus wasn’t behaving as a role model should. On the subject of whether she is a role model, Cyrus tells the magazine there’s a difference between that and parenting.

“My job is to be a role model, and that’s what I want to do, but my job isn’t to be a parent. My job isn’t to tell your kids how to act or how not to act, because I’m still figuring that out for myself. So to take that away from me is a bit selfish. Your kids are going to make mistakes whether I do or not. That's just life,” she said.

Details of the Jessica Simpson-Billy Corgan love match Mystified by the romance between Jessica Simpson and Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan? You’re not alone. Thanks to Us Weekly, though, there’s some insight to be had: Simpson enjoyed some “get to know you dates,” according to the magazine, and is happy to be “taking it slowly.” As far as Corgan is concerned, he “likes her because she’s a blonde with big boobs, but he also thinks she’s a catch,” a source told the magazine.

Keeping tabs: People wins the weekly war, by a hair
Even if you don’t like Kate Gosselin and couldn’t care less about her, please support her newly extended hair — featured on the cover of this week’s People — by buying the magazine. Another reason to buy People and Gosselin’s “I’m starting over” cover over the others, especially if you’re just going to buy one weekly: It would be a way of not supporting the borderline miscreants of “Jersey Shore,” who appear in Life and Style.

In Touch is interesting this week, but the reason isn’t the cover (Angelina Jolie has “jealous rage” toward Jennifer Aniston). The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Richard Spencer, quit the magazine as it was going to press Monday night. An internal replacement for Spencer is said to be in the works already.